1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus to and from which a detachable member such as a battery pack is attached and detached.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is an electronic apparatus which allows a battery pack to be attached to and detached from a case for housing electronic components, and uses a lock lever to keep the battery pack attached to the case. In some of such electronic apparatus, a lock lever is provided so as to be reciprocally movable on the inner surface of the case (movable in a first direction and in a second direction opposite to the first direction), while a portion of the lock lever (operation button portion for operating the lock lever) is designed to be exposed to or face an operation opening formed in the case. Such an electronic apparatus is required to be structured so as to prevent the lock lever from falling off through the operation opening. Thus, in some of such electronic apparatus, the lock lever is prevented from falling off by using a fall-off prevention member separate from the lock lever, or by providing an elastic hook integrally with the lock lever or with a member supporting the lock lever.
However, the conventional electronic apparatus have the below-described problems. The arrangement of using a fall-off prevention member separate from a lock lever causes an increase in the number of man-hours to assemble the lock lever to the case, and the assembly of the lock lever to the case becomes complicated. In addition, this arrangement causes an increase in the number of components and in the cost. Further, the arrangement of providing an elastic hook integrally with a lock lever or with a member supporting the lock lever causes the lock lever to easily fall off when a force is applied thereto, so that the fall-off of the lock lever is not sufficiently prevented.
Various methods of locking a battery pack in electronic apparatus are known. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2008-257944 discloses an electronic apparatus in which a pivotally operable lock lever is pivoted to linearly move a lock plate, which is supported to be linearly movable, so as to lock a battery pack. Further, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Hei 8-273646 discloses an electronic apparatus in which a slidably supported operating member is slided to swing a swingably supported engaging member so as to lock a battery pack. However, these methods disclosed in the prior art do not solve the above problems.